The Lightning Thief
by Laysi246
Summary: I know lots of people have done this, but I wanted to try it. This is a re-read of the Lightning Thief. Takes place after the Son of Hades but before the Blood of Olympus. All characters. Rated T for some minor cursing later, child abuse, and mentions of rape. Please review. Percico!
1. Chapter 1

** The Lightning Thief **

**Summary: Percy, Thalia, and Nico(and eventually other people) get zapped to the past to read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus series. Sorry I suck at summaries there may be a bit of Percico not sure yet... I don't own the PJO series or the HoO The awesomely awesome Rick Roirdan does. Sorry for any mistakes and if the characters seem a little too OC. I'll try to make it funny but my sense of humour is messed up. **

**Chapter 1 **

**3rd person P.O.V.**

It was the winter solstice on Olympus with the gods usual bickering:

"Mother Rhea always liked you best-"

"Air disasters are better than sea disasters-" etc.

When a blinding white light appeared and dropped a Demi-god from the roof and landed on the floor. The impact should have killed him, but he surprised the gods when tried to sit up, but just as he almost got up another Demi-god popped up and landed on top of the first. Just as Zeus was about to speak another Demi-god fell from the roof but she landed perfectly on her feet.

** Zeus's P.O.V.**

"Who are you and why did you interrupt the winter solstice?!" I yelled at the intruders purposely adding thunder to make it more intimidating. The first boy finally stood up. He had black hair that looked as if he had just gotten out of bed, sea green eyes, and was wearing a Camp-Half Blood t-shirt with some blue jeans. He stepped forward.

"Didn't you summon us?" He asked his question directed towards all of us. Just as soon as the words left his mouth. The Fates appeared. This couldn't be good...

"Hello Zeus. Olympians," They said bowing. "Sorry for the...inconvenience. We have brought these Demi-gods back from the future to read some books with you. You may not harm them. As you read on we will send some more of your children, but for now these are the first three. As I assume some of you guys will find their presence...startling or amusing. Maybe even a threat, but as we said earlier YOU. MAY. NOT. HARM. THEM." They said this emphasizing each word. What did they mean by threat? They then turned to the Demi-gods,

"You will introduce yourselves except for you parents and titles. Just names." Then without another word they flashed out. I turned to them expectantly. The first boy was the first to speak again.

"I'm Percy Jackson." He said smiling happily. The next was a girl. She had short spiky black hair and electrifying blue eyes. She wore a Hunter's outfit. She reminded me of Thalia. She stepped forward like the the one named Percy did.

"Thalia Grace." She said smiling a tiny bit looking up at me. Thalia! But she couldn't be here! She's a tree. The others seemed to recognize her to. Hera wouldn't be to happy. She was never really fond of my mortal children. The others looked at me waiting for my reaction. I simply glared at them mentally yelling at them to stop.

The last one stepped forward. He had black hair like Percy did and the same I-just-got-out-of-bed hair style. His eyes were either really dark brown, or pitch black. His skin was pale as if he spent a lot of time in the dark. He was dressed in all black.

"Nico Di Angelo." He said giving a nervous smile. He looked sort of uncomfortable. He went to stand by Percy. Just as the introductions finished a box appeared containing five books and a notes from the Fates.

"Are those the books Father?" Athena asked. She had always loved reading. I simply nodded my head.

"What are they called?" She asked seriously, but I could tell she was eager to start reading them. I looked at them and what I found startled me.

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of The Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian." I read them out loud. I looked down at the Percy in front of me. He looked confused and in shock. Thalia and Nico were looking at him confused too.

"These books are about you?" I asked. Why did they (who ever they were?) write books about him.

"Umm... Yeah... I guess." He replied still looking confused. He stared at my hands. I looked down. The note. I almost forgot about it.

"Before we start I guess we should read the note the Fates have sent." I said catching the attention of everyone. I started reading,

_ "To the Olympians and future Demi-gods, These are only the first five of ten books. Don't try to prevent what will happen in the future, we all know you can't control prophecies. And a small reminder: don't hurt the children. We know you'll want to (mostly when you find out their parents) but don't. We'll be sending more Demi-gods later as you read._

_ -The Fates" _

"Ten books?" Thalia asked. "Yes." I said after making sure everyone was here before I started reading. Percy Jackson and the Olympians:

** The Lightning Thief**

"The lightning thief?" Apollo asked. Everyone looked Hermes.

"Hey! Not all thieves are my children." He exclaimed. All of the gods nodded their heads not convinced.

** I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher **

"How do you accidentally vaporize someone?" Apollo asked

"Don't ask." Thalia said. She got a lot of weird looks, so she explained,

"This is Percy. He's weird." Everyone nodded.

"Hey! I'm not weird!" Percy shouted.

"Sure" Nico said drawing out the word longer than normal. Percy glared at him, but you could tell it wasn't serious. At this point I'll never finish. I started reading again after a silence.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"No one does Se-" she stopped herself.

"No one does Percy." She corrected herself when she got a warning look from Percy and Nico.

** If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"Oh no... Percy gives horrible advice." Thalia and Nico groaned. They were still standing.

"Can we have someone to sit?" Percy asked. Hestia drew up some bean bags. As they were getting comfortable I continued reading.

** Close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"You know that's not bad advice" Nico said leaning against Percy. Guess they were closer than I thought. I started reading again.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Check." The Demi-gods said.

**It's scary.**

"Check." They said again.

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Check" they said again, but this time sadly. At this I felt a bit guilty, and judging by the looks on the other gods faces I knew they probably felt like that to.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

"Me to." Nico said pouting a little.

"It not always bad." Percy said putting an arm around Nico's waist. He smiled at him and leaned up closer against him. They were really close... Thalia just smirked at them.

** But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before _they_ sense it too, and they'll come for you. **

"Why to make it sound starker-ish Percy." Thalia laughed along with Nico.

"Oh I'm sorry, next time I plan for someone to read my thoughts I won't do that." He said his voice dripping with sarcasm. Thalia, Nico and now most of the gods were laughing, and after a while he joined in.

** Don't say I didn't warn you. **

"You didn't warn us!" Apollo and Hermes yelled. They both got hit by Artemis.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Really? I thought it was Peter Johnson." Dionysus said from behind his wine magazine.

"You're listening?" The Demi-gods asked in bewilderment.

"Of course." He said. They looked confused, but decided to drop it.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

"It makes sense that you're there." Thalia said.

"Hey!" Percy said, but calmed down a bit when he saw everyone was laughing.

**Am I a troubled kid? **

"Yes!" The Demi-gods exclaimed to the pouting Percy. A couple of the gods (Poseidon, Artemis, and Aphrodite) looked at them curiously.

"This is Percy, he's the most troubled kid in the world. At least I'm pretty sure." Nico said. He leaned against Percy again. Thalia just smiled at them. I wonder what's going on between them? Why does Thalia keep smiling at them? Does she _like _One of them?! Oh. My. Gods. I sound like Aphrodite. That isn't good.

**Yeah. You could say that. **

"You even agree with us!" They said almost in shock.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan—twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"What other color are school busses?" Thalia asked Percy. He just shrugged.

"Sounds like torture." Poseidon said and I smirked. He looked at me questionably. I read the next line.

** I know—it sounds like torture. **

Everyone laughed.

**Most Yancy field trips were. **

"How?" Apollo asked.

"Boring." Percy replied shrugging. He looked up at Aphrodite ,who was already looking at him, and whispered something to Nico who frowned and leaned away from Percy giving him as much space as he could.

** But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Sounds like Chiron." Athena said. And Percy nodded. Then she remembered something, "You shouldn't be sleeping in class anyways!" Athena cried out.

"Well that's Percy for you." Thalia laughed.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"Not possible Perce." Nico and Thalia said laughing.

** Boy, was I wrong.**

"Of course you were." Thalia said.

** See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

All the gods were laughing and Hermes and Apollo were on the ground rolling with laughter.

"What were you aiming for?" Nico asked in between laughter.

"I don't think I was." Percy said. This only made them laugh harder. I started reading again when they calmed down.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind- the- scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that . . . Well, you get the idea.**

"No! We want to hear more!" Hermes and Apollo screamed laughing. I waited until they calmed down.

** This trip, I was determined to be good. **

"As if that was possible." Thalia said still laughing.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich. **

"Eeeeewwwwww!" Aphrodite squealed in disgust. "She eats that?!"

"Yeah." Percy said.

** Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. **

"Wonder what Grover would think of that description." Thalia said thinking of her friend's reaction.

"Don't you dare tell him." Percy threatened.

"Oh she won't have to. And I don't like that description at all." A male voice said behind him. They all turn to see a smiling boy wearing a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, blue jeans, and some converses.

"Hey Grover!" They all yelled happily. Hestia drew up another bean bag for the new guest and I continued reading.

**On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria. **

"Way to blow you cover Goatboy." Thalia snickered while Dionysus glared at a red Grover. So, he's a satyr.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. **

"What did you do to get on probation?" Apollo asked.

"I don't even remember anymore, to many possibilities." This caused Hermes and Apollo to start laughing again.

**The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

""Aww... That's no fun." Hermes muttered.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Do it!" Ares yelled hoping for some action. Aphrodite smacked him.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"Not in his hair" Aphrodite exclaimed still disgusted with this Nancy girl.

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. "That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

Ares glared at Grover who looked absolutely terrified.

** "You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. **

"Me too." Ares muttered.

** In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"Great" I think I heard Poseidon say. I wondered why he cared for this Demi-god.

** Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. He rode up in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"More than that." Athena told him smiling. I guess she getting fond of this Demi-god.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, _a stele_, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

I looked up to see that Thalia was staring at Percy with her mouth open.

"You... Found... Something... At school...interesting?" She asked him while Nico looked as if he were trying to hold in his laughter.

"Hey! I have my moments." Percy replied crossing his arms across his chest.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right in to your locker. **

I heard two people gasp only to find it was Hades and Nico. They were both staring at Percy. Hades in curiosity and Nico looked upset or mad maybe both. Percy was avoiding having to look at him.

**She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. **

"Before anyone says anything:," Percy said looking at Thalia, who looked away innocently, "it wasn't my fault." He finished his sentence.

"I don't believe you." Thalia said.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. **

"That's cruel." Hermes said.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"You're gonna blow your cover Goatboy." Thalia laughed at the slightly red Grover.

"He didn't really believe me." Grover said in his defense while everyone else laughed at them.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?" It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did Perce.." Nico said smirking.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story. "Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?" My face was totally red. **

"Wait. Is it the type of red it gets when we catch you making out with-" she was interrupted by Percy covering her mouth with his hand. He glared at her while Nico, Grover and her laughed.

"So, who are you dating?" Aphrodite asked him, and even I could see he didn't seem to happy right now.

"No one." He said in a tone that made it clear that he didn't want to talk about this. How did he have the nerve to talk to a god that way? Everyone was listening to the conversation now. He and Aphrodite were having a staring contest. He sighed in defeat.

"I'll tell you after this chapter." He grumbled while Aphrodite squealed in excitement and he glared at his friends, who were laughing silently.

**I said, "No, sir." Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?" I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it.**

"You recognized it?" Thalia asked in disbelief. If this comes as a shock I wonder how dense this Demi-god was.

"You know I'm not that hopeless." Percy said laughing at her reaction.

** "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"Why does it always have to be that one?" Poseidon asked shuddering at the memory. Glad I wasn't there. I smiled to my self.

** "Yes," he said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because . . ."**

** " Well..." I racked my brain to remember.**

"Don't try to hard Perce." Nico said laughing a bit. Percy half heartily glared at him.

**"Kronos was the king god, and—" **

"GOD?!" I yelled infuriated. I'm king god!

"Sorry, but I do correct my self. I think..." I kept reading.

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

** "Titan," I corrected myself. **

"Told you." I heard him mumble. I decided to ignore it. I saw Poseidon smirking.

** "And... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—" **

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"Imagine being there." Aphrodite shuddered again along with most of the other gods.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, " and the gods won." **

"You described a war with hundreds of death and destruction as 'big fight'?" Athena asked him. He nodded. I heard her mumbled something about a low vocabulary.

"Forget about that, he managed to sum up a war that took years into. Couple of sentences. That takes talent,." Hermes smiled at Percy.

"Whoever's kid this is I love him!" He said laughing now. Percy just smiled. I think I saw Poseidon smile to.

** Some snickers from the group. **

"Why were they laughing? You got the answer right." Athena asked him. He sighed before answering her.

"I normally didn't ever get anything right, so they naturally assume anything I say is wrong." Athena looked murderous at the at answer.

** Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids'**

"Idiot." I heard Athena mumble.

** "And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?" **

"Busted!" Hermes and Apollo yelled.

"It does matter... If your a Demi-god." Percy and Thalia said.

** "Busted," Grover muttered **

"Ha! You guys think like a goat." A new voice said. Everyone turned around to see twins standing there laughing. They walked over to us.

"We're Travis and Conner Stoll. Son of Hermes." They said together as if they practiced it. Hestia drew up another bean bag for them.

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed her face even brighter red than her hair. At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears. **

"More like horse ears." Travis and Conner said. Everyone was laughing at this until the centaur himself said,

"I heard that." Everyone stopped laughing immediately. He was in his wheelchair. "Olympians." He said nodding to us.

"Wait. You guys do know what's going on right?" Thalia asked them.

"Yeah the Fates explained everything. We just wanted the hear Percy's thoughts and you know." They said smiling, but the look Chiron gave them made them stop. I looked over at the first trio (Percy, Thalia, and Nico) they were all laughing.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir." "I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach.**

"You had to go into details?" Demeter asked looking like she was about to throw up. "Sorry." Chiron apologized.

**The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"How is that a happy note?" Apollo asked Chiron.

"Not sure actually." He said.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. **

Artemis raised an eyebrow,

"When are they not?" She asked him.

"Now." He said which was true all five boys (well four boys and a satyr), and gods were sitting calmly and paying close attention to the book. At least that's what I thought until I saw Ares, Apollo and Hermes rough housing. Artemis raised her eyebrow again.

"Well... They don't count." He said. Artemis actually smiled at him.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson." I knew what was coming. I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

"Not quite Percy. Not quite." Chiron said.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me. **

**"About the Titans?" **

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

** "Oh."**

"Typical Percy answer." Thalia and Nico both said before laughing at Percy's eye roll.

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

"That's a lot of pressure." The Stolls whistled.

"Sorry about that Percy." He said sadly.

"It's okay Chiron. I mean you had to." He said smiling.

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard. I mean, sure it was kind of cool on tournament days,when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" And challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run up to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be _as good_; he expected me to be _better_. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly. **

"Wow... Again that's a lot of pressure." Travis and Conner said. While Chiron looked down sadly.

"Really Chiron it's okay." Percy said and smiled when Chiron did.

"I don't think even Athena could name every Greek and Roman person and their mother and which god they worshipped." Hermes said, which got him a smack on the head from Athena.

** I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral. **

"He probably was." Thalia said.

** He told me to go outside and eat my lunch. The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue. Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in. **

Everyone was looking at me and Poseidon.

"Wonder what got you two mad this time." Athena said.

"Probably the usual things." Demeter said bored.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. **

"The Mist." Athena said.

** Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. **

"Boys." Artemis said clearly annoyed.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

Everyone looked at Hermes, who frowned.

"Not my kid." Was all he said.

** Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school— the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Ow!" Percy groaned rubbing his head where Nico had just smacked him.

"What was that for?"

"For thinking that you were a 'loser freak'. You're not a loser or a freak." Nico said.

"He's right you know." Thalia said to Percy. The Stolls and Grover nodding in agreement. "Thanks guys." Percy said hugging Thalia and Nico cause they were siting right next to him.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius." **

"That's an understatement." A female voice said. I looked up to see a girl with blond hair in a ponytail, and stormy gray eyes. Like Athena's. She looked up at us and bowed. "Annabeth Chase. Daughter of Athena." She said smiling, as a note appeared in front of me.

_We forgot to tell you: you won't have to explain to the new Demi-gods what's happening. They know they have been sent to the past and that you are reading about Percy's adventures. The coming Demi-gods will tell you their parentage, it's just Percy, Thalia, and Nico, who can't tell you. Enjoy your reading. _

_ -The Fates _

I continued reading Annabeth sat down, sharing Thalia's bean bag, like Nico and Percy were sharing one.

** Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, **

**"Can I have your apple?" **

Everyone busted out laughing at the red satyr.

"Sorry man." He said to Percy.

"It's okay G-man." He said laughing with everyone else.

** I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it. I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Mama's boy." Ares said.

"What's wrong with that?" Hera asked him.

"N-nothing Mommy!" He said stuttering. I could tell the Demi-gods were trying not to laugh.

"Six schools in six years?" The Stolls asked Percy. He just nodded.

"You even beat our record." They said in shock.

** Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

Hephaestus was already drawing blueprints.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap. **

All of the Demi-gods gritted their teeth at this.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. **

"You have the weirdest, yet vey detailed, descriptions." Annabeth said laughing.

"In my defense: no one is exactly supposed to know my thoughts." He said pouting, but stopped when saw everyone was laughing, even Nico.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper."**

"How many times did you go to the counselor?" Nico asked sighing, but before Percy could answer Grover did,

"If it was a good week about four times a week. A bad week about four times a day." He said. Everyone looked at Percy.

"You try controlling your temper with her. It's impossible." He said which had them laughing again.

** But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

A wave? I was quiet for a minute before I turned to look at Poseidon. Could it be he broke the oath? Athena was looking at him too.

** I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain screaming, "Percy pushed me!" Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

"She's a monster isn't she?" Travis or Conner asked.

"Yeah..." Percy said looking at Nico worriedly. Nico was looking at the book.

** Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—" **

**"—the water—"**

** "—like it grabbed her—" **

"You broke the oath!" I screamed at Poseidon.

"You will not hurt my son or I will personally send you to Tartarus with Father. And need I remind you, that you broke the oath as well." He said pointing at Thalia before I could say anything else. I could tell he was serious. Could Percy be the prophecy child? He could already use his powers unconsciously.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again. **

A few of the Demi-gods laughed.

** As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. **

"You did Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said rolling her eyes.

"I didn't know back then." Percy said.

**"Now, honey—" "I know," I grumbled.**

** "A month erasing workbooks." **

"No!" Hermes and his kids screamed.

"You never guess your punishment. That's rule #17." he groaned at Percy.

"Sorry," he said holding his hands up "I didn't know."

** That wasn't the right thing to say. **

"Of course not." Hermes groaned.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her." I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. **

"With good reason." I heard Hades or Nico mutter.

"Why?" I asked. Hades spoke before Nico.

"You'll see." He glanced at Poseidon worriedly.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled. **

The Demi-gods were laughing at the sheepish looking Grover.

** "I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

** "But—"**

** "You—_will_—stay—here."**

"At least you were persistent." Annabeth said smiling at Grover.

**Grover looked at me desperately. **

**"It's okay, man," I told him. **

**"Thanks for trying."**

I saw Artemis raise an eyebrow at him.

** "Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. **

**"Now." Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"You do not want to be one the other side of that." Grover said to us.

"Mine is better." Ares challenged, and gave us his glared. The Demi-gods weren't fazed at all. They all looked at Percy, who just sighed and gave us his glare. It was terrifying. And I could swear the room got colder and darker. Everyone shivered when he stopped. Ares just grumbled something about 'stupid Demi-god', while Nico smiled a bit at Percy.

** Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on. How'd she get there so fast? **

Nobody spoke.

** I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

"Don't be so sure Seaweed Brain." Annabeth mumbled.

** I wasn't so sure.**

Everyone laughed at the similarity.

I went after Mrs. Dodds.

"Not a good idea Percy." I heard Nico quietly say to him.

"I didn't really have much of a choice. You know?" He relied. Nico just rolled his eyes.

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel**. Coverages

"Cause that novel is more important than my son's life." Poseidon grumbled while Chiron apologized. Poseidon accepted the apology but was still glaring.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall. **

Everybody was worried now.

** Okay,I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. **

"That's not the plan." Thalia said to Percy.

"Didn't know back then." He said shrugging.

**But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

I looked up to see everyone was looking at Percy worriedly. They must really care about him.

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"It was growling." Annabeth and Thalia said.

** Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it. . . **

"She probably did." Hades said. Then to Poseidon,

"You can't blame me for my future self's actions." Poseidon only nodded confused.

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said. I did the safe thing.**

** I said, "Yes, ma'am." **

"Wow. You did the safe thing and were polite that's a first." Travis and Conner said laughing, which only made the other Demi-gods laugh, breaking a bit of the tension. Poseidon looked worried.

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket.**

** "Did you really think you would get away with it?" The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. **

"Wrong." Annabeth and Athena said.

** I said, "I'll—I'll try harder ma'am."**

"Man, you were stuttering," Travis and Conner said, "must've been hard for you being that polite." They laughed when they got a playful glare from him.

"Or he was just scared." Annabeth countered.

"If that was the reason: It was his first monster. Cut him some slack." Grover came to Percy's defense.

Thunder shook the building. Everyone looked at me.

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and will suffer less pain." **

"Less pain?" Poseidon asked, he looked a bit pale.

"Dad I'm right here. I'm okay." Percy reassured Poseidon, calming him down a bit.

** I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"Of course you didn't." The Demi-gods laughed.

** All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

Everyone was laughing.

"Man Uncle P! I love your kid!" Hermes and Apollo said. Poseidon smiled at this proudly.

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade.**

Annabeth and Athena were both glaring at Percy now, who was trying not to laugh. Hermes and Apollo were only laughing harder along with everyone else.

"They should take that grade away." Annabeth said.

**Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"How is that worse?" Grover asked.

The Demi-gods were looking at him in shock.

"Percy's dyslexia is worst then most of ours, but still you try reading a book when all the words decide to jump off the pages." Grover shrunk into his bean bag at the tone of Thalia's voice.

"Well?" She demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't..."

** "Your time is up," she hissed. Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. **

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON?!" Poseidon yelled to Hades at the same time Nico yelled at Percy:

"YOU FACED ALECTO AND DIDN'T TELL ME?!" Poseidon and Hades got their argument first.

"I told you not to blame me for my future self's actions. For all you know I had a good reason!" Hades yelled at Poseidon.

"He still didn't even know he was a Demi- god!" Poseidon yelled back.

"I'm sorry Brother." Hades said talking normally. Poseidon still looked mad but accepted the apology. Everyone turned to look at Percy and Nico who were now arguing.

"I...Faced...Didn't...When." Percy was saying. I couldn't hear all of it because they were whispering.

"You...She...Your...Monster." Nico angrily argued back.

"I...Worry..." Percy said. Whatever he said to Nico calmed him down a little.

"Fine...Sorry..." Percy smiled at him, before looking up and realizing we were all trying to listen.

"Umm... You can ummm... Keep reading now." He said. I felt kind of bad for trying to eves drop. So I saved him from this awkward moment by reading.

** She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons. **

Nobody said a word.

**Then things got even stranger.**

Nobody wanted to break the tension.

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

** "What ho, Percy!" He shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. **

"What's a pen gonna do?" Ares asked. Percy and Poseidon smiled.

** Mrs. Dodds lunged at me. With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

"Oh." Was the only thing Ares said.

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp." Ares said, and he got hit with a large amount of salt water from Poseidon.

** She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. **

"That comes naturally to you?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"Yeah." Everyone just looked at him weirdly.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. _Hisss_! **

"You killed a Fury on your first try?" Hermes asked him.

"Yeah, but I couldn't have done it without Chiron's help." He said smiling at the centaur. Artemis was looking at him again with a raised eyebrow.

"Even before he knew he was a son of Poseidon, he was making water references." Annabeth laughed. Everyone joined in with her.

** Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

"I hate that feeling." Thalia said.

"Yeah." The Demi-gods agreed with her.

**I was alone. There was a ballpoint pen in my hand. Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me. **

"You still let the Mist affect you?" Athena asked.

"Yeah." Percy said.

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something. **

"Really Percy? Magic mushrooms is the best you could come up with?" The Stolls and Hermes asked.

"I was confused."Percy said.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Nope." The Stolls said popping the 'P'.

**I went back outside. **

**It had started to rain. **

"Stop thinking in short sentences."Apollo said.

** Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Hermes, Apollo, Travis, Conner, Thalia, and Nico asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

The Demi-gods laughed.

**"Our teacher. _Duh!_" **

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. **

"That wasn't very nice." Aphrodite said. I forgot she was here.

** I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

** He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Grover can't lie." Annabeth, Thalia, and Percy said. Grover turned a bright red.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted.**

** "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson." I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

** "Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?" He stared at me blankly. **

**"Who?" "The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned.**

** "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Now Chiron can lie!"'Hermes said proudly. Everyone agreed.

"Now how about a lunch break? I'm starving." Apollo said.

"I do believe Percy owns me some information, though." Aphrodite said smiling at him. Everyone walked to the kitchen while Aphrodite led Percy the other way.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Percy's P.O.V.**

Aphrodite was leading me down an empty hall. She came to stop in front of a room, and pulled the door open. She pulled me inside.

"So, who are you dating?" She asked me. As much as I didn't want to tell her, I had already promised. She looked at me expectantly and I sighed.

"Nico Di Angelo." I said. She didn't say anything at first, but then she started squealing excitedly.

"When did this happen?" She asked me. This was going to take a long time.

"Before I tell you anything else, I need you to swear on the River Styx you won't tell anybody. Especially my dad or his." She looked like she was about to explode of happiness.

"Oooh! Forbidden love. I love it," she said happily. "Okay, I swear on the River Styx I won't tell anybody about your relationship with Nico."

"Thanks." I said. I let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding. I was worried she wouldn't do it. I knew she loved dramatic love stories, and I did not need drama right now.

"_Now_ you need to answer my questions: When did this happen?, How did it happen?, Who else knows about this?, and Why can't you tell your fathers?" I smiled in spite of my self. I never thought I'd ever be talking to the goddess of love about Nico.

"About three months ago, I just walked up to him and accidentally kissed him and was surprised when he didn't push me back, after that we started dating, only Thalia and Grover know about us, I don't think my dad would approve and I'm pretty sure his dad will kill me if he found out." I answered. She was looking at me with her lips pursed. She seemed to be thinking, before she smiled at me.

"How did you "accidentally" kiss him?" She asked making quotations around the accidental part.

"It was night and we were by the lake talking. He looked amazing in the moonlight and I couldn't help myself. I gave into my feelings. I kissed him." I told her. She thought of another question.

"Why don't you bring it up with his dad? I can see Poseidon loves and cares about you. I don't think he would mind." I knew the part about my dad was true, but still. What if he did mind?

"I can't really tell his dad because, other than the fact that I'm pretty sure he'll kill me, I don't know how to bring it up. Am I just supposed to walk up to him and say 'Hey! I just wanted to let you know that I fell head over heels in love with your son, Nico, and that we're now dating." I finished my small rant sarcastically to see that Aphrodite was beaming at me. What did I do? She must've read my mind cause she answered my question.

"You really care about Nico! It's so cute!" She said smiling.

"And that's exactly how you should approach it with his father." She was still smiling. I wanted to tell her who exactly Nico's dad was, but I couldn't.

"I'll try it later. Maybe." I said to her. Maybe.

"Thank you for telling me Percy, and don't worry your secret is safe with me. I think we should get back. They're probably waiting for us." She said leading the way to the door. I smiled, and was still smiling when I walked into the throne room. I walked straight back to my spot with Nico on our shared bean bag with Aphrodite smiling at us. Nico, Thalia and Grover raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'll tell you later." I mouthed at them and they nodded.

"Who wants to read now?" Zeus asked everyone. Annabeth raised her hand, and Zeus tossed her the book.

**Three Old Ladies Knit The Socks Of Death**

"Are all the chapters going to have weird names?" Thalia asked, but before I could answer Annabeth answered.

"This is Percy, what did you expect?" She responded.

"True." Thalia said nodding. I scowled at them. That caused everyone to laugh.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. **

"Thats true." Most of the other Demi-gods agreed with me nodding their heads.

**This twenty-four/ seven hallucination was more than I could handle.**

Everyone was staring at me in shock, except for the gods who looked confused.  
"What's wrong?" I asked them worriedly.

"After everything you've done, that was 'more then you could handle'?" Annabeth asked me with disbelief in her voice.

"Yeah. I thought I was going crazy, and I hadn't really done anything then. I didn't know I was a Demi-god yet." I said back. Thalia was chuckling, while the Stolls were gaping their mouth open and closed like fishes. Grover was laughing at the memory and Annabeth was smiling shaking her head trying not to laugh. Nico was looking at me with a small, barely noticeable smile on his face.

**For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond women whom I'd never seen a day in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"The Mist." Athena said while my dad, Apollo, Hermes, Ares, and Dionysus rolled their eyes at her.

"That would make anyone feel crazy." The Stolls said nodding, before they got a mischievous grin on their faces.

"Don't even think about." Annabeth and Thalia said at the same time. Travis and Conner blushed slightly at being caught.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

"Where would we be if Prissy wasn't psycho?" Someone asked. I (as well as everyone else in the room) turned to see Clarisse standing there. She walked up to us and to the gods said:

"Clarisse La Rue. Daughter of Ares." Ares sat up a bit straighter in what I think is proudness at his daughter. Hestia got another bean bag for her before Annabeth kept on reading.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed**

"Noticed how it said almost?" Annabeth asked.

"Bet you five drachmas it was Grover." Travis said to his brother, Conner, who shook his offered hand and said, "You're on."

**Almost.  
But Grover couldn't fool me.**

Travis held his hand out with a smirk on his face while Conner grumbled and dug in his pocket. Hermes was looking at them smiling.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

"Rule #15: Never hesitate when you lie!" Hermes and his sons scolded Grover whose ears were getting a red-ish tint to them.

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"No shit Sherlocks." Nico muttered, leaning a bit closer to me. I wrapped my arm around his waist making sure no one would notice.

"Really Seaweed Brain? You just figured that out!" Thalia and Annabeth asked me looking at me incredulously. I purposely shrugged bringing Nico closer to me without them noticing. I saw Nico smiling a bit.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

I shivered at the memory also feeling Nico shiver.

"I hate your dreams." Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia said.

"Yeah... Me to!" I said. Surprisingly the gods haven't said anything in a while. I looked up at them only to see they all seemed to be thinking deeply.

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room.**

My dad, Poseidon, glared at Zeus.  
"Why were you mad this time Zeus?" Demeter asked. He just shrugged.

**A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.**

Everyone raised an eyebrow at Zeus except us Demi-gods. Zeus sighed before shrugging again.

**One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

This time the gods looked at Poseidon instead of Zeus. Annabeth smiled knowingly.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time.**

"You probably picked up your father's mood." Athena said to me.

**My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

Athena and Annabeth gasped. They were both looking at me in disbelief.I told her to keep reading.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

"Yes! Action!" Ares screamed while Clarisse looked at him weirdly.

"Physical fights or arguments?" Artemis asked me.

"Arguments. I wouldn't hit a girl." I said. Nico, Thalia, Annabeth, Travis, Conner, Grover, and Clarisse nodded in agreement. Artemis raised her eyebrow..._again_. I guess past Artemis liked me as much as present/ future Artemis.

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

Nico sighed, while Annabeth and her mother just shook their heads sadly at me. Thalia and Grover were laughing at this.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped.**

"I would've too," Clarisse said.

"What type of person asks a dyslexic kid why he didn't study for a spelling test?" She said. Travis and Conner were nodding.

**I called him an old sot.**

Everyone was looking at Athena and Annabeth who were laughing.

"What does it mean?" Hermes and Apollo asked.

"It means old drunk." Annabeth said still laughing. Everyone joined in.

"So, Dionysus?" Hermes asked which caused Dionysus to glared at him and the rest of us to laugh harder.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant , but it sounded good.**

"Of course you didn't know what it meant Perce." Nico said teasing me a bit.

"I do now." I replied tightening my arm around his waist. Of course only Thalia( who smiled at us), Grover(who also smiled), and Aphrodite( who I was sure was about to combust with joy) noticed this.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

"Yep." Annabeth said popping the 'P'. "Just another school." She said mockingly. I laughed remembering all the schools I've gone to.

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

"And the King of Sarcasm strikes again!" The Stolls said loudly making everyone laugh.

"Well, you do have to love Percy's sarcasm." Grover said agreeing. I felt Nico nod his head slightly. By now everyone was laughing.

**I was homesick.**

Aphrodite cooed.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"What's wrong with public school?" Athena asked me.

"I don't know. I never went to one, it just seemed weird to me."

"Paul doesn't seem like a gambler." Nico and Thalia said. I hated talking about my past. Before I knew I was a Demi-god.

"He's not." I could hear the hatred in my voice. They just looked at me surprisingly. I told Annabeth to keep reading.

"What's wrong?" Nico whispered looking up at me with those black eyes that I love. What did I tell him? I didn't want them to know. I didn't want anybody to know. Ever.

"Nothing. Just thought of something." I lied. I hated lying to him like this. He turned back around clearly not convinced.

**And yet . . . there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees.**

"Of course you noticed the River." Annabeth said laughing along with everyone else.

**I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

"Gee. I was going to say thanks, but..." Grover said jokingly. Everyone laughed at him.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Lucky for me, I wouldn't have to be there next year." Grover said happily chewing a tin can from, I assume, lunch. Gods. I missed lunch. Now I'm starving. I ignored it as Annabeth continued reading.

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"Percy, we all know you can do better than 'well'." Nico whispered to be.

"Thanks Nico." I answered back.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Well. Everyone has to start somewhere." Annabeth said seriously. Thalia burst out laughing. I looked up to see that the gods were still thinking, but waiting for the story to continue.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me.**

"It is." Poseidon said which startled me a bit because he'd been so quite.

**I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Good." Poseidon said. Surprisingly Athena nodded her head in agreement.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

Athena and Annabeth were both glaring at me which looked weird because they look alike. It made it more intimidating.

"You can't throw a book Seaweed Brain." Annabeth sighed in distress.

**Words had stared swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards.**

"I hate that." All the Demi-gods murmured.

**There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces.**

"I do now." I said remembering when I had met Charon. Poseidon was looking at me worriedly.

"Dad, I'm okay." I mouthed to him at he calmed down a bit. Nico hasn't said anything in a while. He looked calm, but I could see the worry in his eyes. I squeezed him closer to me. Thalia, Grover and Aphrodite were practically giggling like kids, while Annabeth looked at them weirdly. Travis, Conner, and Clarisse didn't notice.

**And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"At least you sort of know how now." Annabeth said laughing. At that moment three more Demi-gods arrived.

"Jason Grace." The first one said. He went to the three new beanbags Hestia got for them.

"Piper McLean. Daughter of Aphrodite." She said smiling at her mom.

"Leo Valdéz. Son of the most awesome-est god-"

"Leo! Hurry up!" Piper cried out.

"Alright, alright. Leo Valdéz. Son of Hephaestus." Leo said smiling.

"Hey you guys!" I said waving at them. They laughed backed,

"Hey Perce!" Annabeth kept reading after that.

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

I saw Hermes and his kids smile.  
"Don't even think about it." I warned them. They smiled sheepishly.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. _I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson._  
I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

"Do you always prepare your self before picking up a book Perce?" Thalia joked, which caused everyone to laugh, hard.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"Well, that explains your grades." I heard Athena muttered. I chose to ignore it. Nico had his head resting on my chest. He looked sleepy, but forcing himself to stay awake. That's when I noticed how late it was.

**Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam.**

"Why is it not a skinny F?" Demeter asked. I never really thought about it. I shrugged.

"Bet he'd be skinnier if he ate some more cereal." She said matter-of-factly.

"Woman! Stop with the cereal." Hades said rather annoyed. It was safer to keep reading.

** I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

The goddesses all cooed(except for Artemis, and Hera) at me, while Chiron said,  
"I know you tried Percy." He smiled at me.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor. I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. **

"Ha! You guys got caught!" Hermes laughed. The rest of us just rolled our eyes at him.

**Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said ". . . worried about Percy, sir."**

"When aren't we worried?" Nico grumbled. Everyone laughed half-heartedly. My dad looked at me worriedly again.

"I'm okay." I mouthed to him again. He nodded gripping his trident.

**I froze.**

"Good, don't let them know you're there. Rule #12." Hermes and his kids said at the same time. Hermes beamed at Travis and Conner proudly.

"How many rules are there?" Athena asked them.

"444 so far." Hermes said. She just groaned in reply.

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Sure you're not." Everyone said.

"Hey! I'm not... Unless I have a really good reason to." I shot back at them. They just rolled their eyes.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"He has a point." Surprisingly Hera said. Good thing she doesn't know she doesn't like me.  
I inched closer.  
**". . . alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

"I really should have made sure no one was around." Chiron murmured to himself.

"Well our nerves weren't right at the time." Grover, Annabeth, and me said. He smiled, his old eyes twinkling.

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

"Yeah. A Lot more." Annabeth, Thalia, the Stolls, and Clarisse laughed.

"Even that's an understatement." Nico said holding in a laugh of his own.

"Hey! I'm mature." I said. I could tell they were holding in more laughter. So, I did the most mature thing I could think of: I stuck my tongue out at them. Everyone burst out laughing even the gods. Hermes and Apollo were rolling on the ground again.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline—" **

"What's the summer solstice deadline?" The gods asked.

"You'll just have to wait." Annabeth smiled.

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he can."  
"Sir, he saw her. . ."  
"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"I thought I was going crazy." I said thinking out loud.

"I would've to." Travis and Conner said.

"Wait! Didn't you guys already say that?" Annabeth asked. We nodded our heads. She sighed in relief.

"Good I thought I was going crazy." We all laughed again.

**"Sir, I . . . I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion.**

Thalia sighed. "Grover, it was my choice. It wasn't your fault." Grover smiled at her giving her a one arm hug.

**"You know what that would mean."  
"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

"You probably scared him out of his skin, Chiron." Athena sort of scolded him.

"Sorry." He said to both of us smiling sheepishly.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Nooo! Never give away your position! Rule #32!" Hermes, and the Stolls shouted in horror, while Hades said, "What other sound would a book hitting the ground make?"

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

"You scared us Perce." Grover said.

My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.

"Good. Pick of the evidence and retreat." Hermes said nodding in approval.

"You do realize you're talking to a book. Right?" Apollo asked him holding in his laughter as well as a couple of other gods(Poseidon, Demeter, and Zeus.)

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

We all looked at Chiron, who looked away and whistled innocently.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

"Good." Hermes, Travis, and Conner murmured.

**A few seconds later I heard a slow _clop~clop~clop_, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

I heard lots of people let out a breath, including Nico. He still looked tired.

"Are you sleepy?" I whispered to him. He just nodded a little.

"You can go to sleep." I told him.

"No, I want to hear everything. At the end of the chapter we'll all go to sleep, it's getting late." He whispered back. I nodded and discreetly kissed the top of his head, he nuzzled closer to me.

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.  
Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke.  
"Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."  
"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn . . ."**

"What happened at the winter solstice?" The Olympians asked.

"You'll just have to wait." Annabeth said. They just groaned.

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"I hate having to retake those test." Grover groaned. The rest us just laughed a bit.

**"Don't remind me."**

"I feel you G-man." I said remembering those test.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.  
I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

"Good always make sure the coast is clear. Rule #248." Hermes and his kids said in unison. It was kinda scary.

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.  
Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

"So, good acting, but bad lying," Travis and Conner said writing in a small notebook, that came out of nowhere.

"We can fix that." They said smiling at Grover who looked terrified. The gods were snickering and Thalia and Annabeth looked like they would explode if they held it in any longer. Clarisse snorted and Nico only gave a faint smile that was almost none existing.

**Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"  
I didn't answer.  
"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

"Things are perfect. Almost." I said sneaking a tiny glance at Nico, who gave a whisper laugh.

"Why 'almost'?" Poseidon, and Annabeth asked me, the rest looking at me curiously except for Thalia, Aphrodite and Grover. Great.

"Just kind of sleepy." I sort of lied. I was sleepy, but that wasn't the problem.

"Me to. After this chapter we'll get some rest and continue in the morning." She looked at the rest us for approval. I sighed in relief.

**"Just . . . tired."**

"Same old Percy." Thalia and Grover said because Annabeth and the rest of the Demi-gods and gods were laughing.

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, **

"Not going to work." Dionysus muttered from behind his wine magazine. I jumped, he was so quite (surprisingly) I forgot he was here, and judging by the looks on everyone else's faces so did they.

**and started getting ready for bed.  
I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

"Like, with Mrs. Dodds?" Nico mumbled.

"Yeah."

"With magic mushrooms?" He laughed, and I laughed to. Everyone was staring at us. Nico still never really talked to them unless it was mandatory.

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back.**

"Duh Seaweed Brain" I heard Thalia whisper.

**They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"When aren't you?" Nico whispered looking at me with his bottomless black eyes.

"Now?" I offered giving him a small smile hoping to comfort him. He smiled back. Annabeth, Thalia, Clarisse, and the Stolls were trying to explain to the gods without giving to much away. Piper, Leo, and Jason were listening to them.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Three hours!?" Leo, Travis, and Conner screamed. I nodded, they looked at me sadly.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

"At least you know you misspelled them." Athena said.

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

"I didn't even know about it until now." Chiron said laughing.

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's . . . it's for the best."**

Everyone looked at Chiron in shock.

"Well... Yes I must really work on that. Sorry, Percy."

"It's okay."

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"Oh! Those weren't sarcastic." Grover said laughing.

"What?" I said not believing it.

"She liked you." He said doubling over holding his stomach from laughing to hard. I could tell the others were trying to not laugh. Even my dad was holding it in. I felt Nico clutch my shirt. He looked mad, but scared to. I held on to him tighter to reassure him, that I wasn't leaving him.

"Well even if she did, it wouldn't have mattered to me." I said truthfully also hoping to comfort Nico. Thalia caught on and nudged Grover. He nodded, leaving a very confused group of Demi-gods and gods.

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."  
"I mean . . ." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say.**

"I didn't." Chiron sighs.

**"This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"Not your best words Chiron." Poseidon said with slight anger in his voice.

"Dad..." I say warningly.

"Sorry, Chiron." He says. Chiron nods.

**My eyes stung.**

"Wimp." Ares said. He got splashed with sea water, from both me and my dad. Everyone laughed as he grumbled.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

"I'm sorry Percy." Chiron said again.

"Chiron it's okay. Just stop apologizing." He nodded.

**"Right," I said trembling.**

Ares was about to say something, but the glare he got from Poseidon made him change his mind.

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say . . . you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"  
"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me." **

"Reminding you?" Nico asked me. That's something I'd rather not talk about.

"It's nothing." I lied. He pursed his lips not convinced.

"We are going to talk about it eventually." He presses.

"I know...just...not...now." I said. He nodded. His eyes were filled with worried.

**"Percy—"  
But I was already gone.  
On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.  
The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were _rich_ juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities.**

"Well. Your dad is a god." Poseidon said to me. I smiled at him and he did to.

**I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Nobodies?" Zeus said calmly, but I could tell he wanted to vaporize me.

"Dad..." Thalia and Jason said threateningly. He sighed and leaned back in his throne.

"You're not a nobody." Annabeth said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Thanks guys."

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.  
What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

"A child shouldn't have to live like that." Demeter said. The other goddesses (except for Hera) agreed.

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."  
They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"That's rude." The goddesses said annoyed. Nico, Thalia, and Annabeth were glaring at the book so hard I'm surprised it wasn't on fire. Jason, Leo, and Piper were also glaring at the book, but not as hard. We were friends, but we didn't know each other that well. Clarisse was clenching her fists, trying not to punch the Stolls, who kept poking her.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Stalker!" Travis and Conner yelled only to get glared at by Grover.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

"Something bad did happen." Grover said. Everyone was looking at me now. I never told them about the Fates.

"Just keep reading." I said as light heartedly as I could.

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.  
Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

"Stand what?" Hermes asked. I smiled remembering.

"You'll see." I said. All the gods groaned.

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?" **

"You must've scared him out of his skin." Poseidon said laughing.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. **

Everyone laughed at the red Grover.

**"Wha—what do you mean?"  
I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

"Never admit to anything! Rule #2." Hermes groaned at the book.

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"  
"Oh . . . not much.**

"That was practically the whole conversation." Grover said raising his eyebrow at me. I shrugged.

**What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

"That's what we want to know." All of the gods grumbled.

**He winced.**

"Were you in pain?" Ares asked hopefully. Grover shook his head.

"This book is boring, it has no action." Athena, Poseidon, and the rest of the Demi-gods glared at him.

"Are you kidding? This is probably the longest, not counting now, he's gone without getting in trouble." Nico said a bit of anger creeping into his voice. The rest of the Demi-gods nodded forcefully. Dad looked at me worriedly and mouthed," Are they serious?" I nodded hesitatly. He just sighed in defeat.

**"Look, Percy . . . I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers . . ."  
"Grover—"  
"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and . . ."**

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar." Both Thalia and Nico said. Annabeth laughed and read the next line:

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

Thalia was frozen in mock horror.

"I think like Seaweed Brain!" She moaned, fake crying into Annabeth's shoulder. Everyone laughed at her antics, while I was looking at the beautiful blush that marked Nico's pale skin scarlet.

"You know that blush really looks good on you." I whispered, and his blush got darker. I chuckled in his ear, and he scowled.

**His ears turned pink.**

We all looked at Grover. His ears were pink. We all laughed.

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. **

"The camp has business cards?" Travis and Conner asked.

"Yes. We do." Chiron said.

"And not for you guys." Annabeth said threateningly. They cowered under her glare.

**"Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."  
The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes,**

"Why are the cards like that if they're dyslexic?" Zeus asked.

"It gives them practice reading." Chiron answered.

"That's smart and considerate." Athena said.

"It was Dionysus's idea." Everyone was looking at him in shock.

"It's mostly because it's funny watching them struggle." He huffed. Now _that_ sounded like Dionysus.

**but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood  
Keeper  
Half-Blood Hill  
Long Island, New York  
(800) 009-0009  
**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um . . . summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"Why not?" Grover asked me.

I shrugged. "You didn't act like a snobby brat." I said truthfully.

"Thanks man." He said.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like if I want to come visit your mansion."  
He nodded. "Or . . . or if you need me."  
"Why would I need you?" **

Everyone was looking at me in shock.  
"That was harsh." The goddess said.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"At least you knew it was harsh." Hera, Demeter, and Aphrodite said.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."  
I stared at him.**

"Was it that hard to believe?" Clarisse asked, laughing. I nodded at her when Grover wasn't looking. The entire Throne Room burst out laughing, while Grover looked confused.

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

"You're a really good friend." Hestia said warmly. My friends nodded with her.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.  
"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

"Everything." Nico mumbled sadly.

"But none of those things, nothing, can take me away from you." I said back. He smiled and another blush started forming on his cheeks.

"I'm telling you, that blush looks good on you." I whispered to him. He hid his face in his hands.

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

Aphrodite wrinkled her nose.

**The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.  
After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off.**

"Bet you it wasn't even that hard to fix." Leo said.

"Well obviously for you it's not hard. Your a son of Vulcan." Jason said. Hephaestus flickered to his Roman form, then changed back.

"Sorry Lord Vulcan." Jason apologized, and Hephaestus flickered again. Jason cursed and apologized again without adding his name.

**Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.  
We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars.**

Grover and Artemis gritted their teeth.

**On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

Demeter smiled at the mention of this.

"Who wants strawberries?" She asked and Thalia, Annabeth, Grover, Athena, Poseidon and me raised our hands. Bowls of strawberries appeared in front of us, which was a relief because I didn't eat lunch.

"Can you make them blue?" I asked her. She looked at me weirdly (well really every god was looking at me weirdly) and made them blue.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.**

All of the guys who didn't get strawberries had their mouths watering.

**There were no customers just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen**

Everybody gasped and looked at me in horror.

"You saw the Fates?" Nico asked me horrified. I nodded not looking at any of them. Nobody said anything after that, but I could feel the tension.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Like Thalia's and Jason's eyes?" The Stolls asked trying to break the tension.

"Not exactly." I said still not looking at them, scared to see their expressions.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.  
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

I heard everyone suck in a breath.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

I looked over at Grover now and saw his face was exactly the same as it was back then.

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"  
"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

Nico grabbed my hand, behind our backs. I squeezed his hand tightly to remind him I'm still here. He relaxed a tiny bit.

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"That is not the time to be joking, Perce." Jason said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I was just trying to lighten the mood."

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

"To be honest... It kind of was." Nico whispers to me, at least he was trying to not freaking out, like I knew he wanted to.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

I heard everyone in the room do it to. Nico tensed up again.

"Don't worry, Nico. It's not mine." I kept repeating to him, hoping to calm him down a notch.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."  
"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

"Typical Percy." The Stolls said trying again to lighten the mood. I smiled at them gratefully.

**"Come on!" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"Of course you did Seaweed Brain." Annabeth whispered worriedly.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that _snip_ across four lanes of traffic.**

I squeezed Nico's hand and I heard him exhale.

"How are you still alive?" Athena asked half whispering half talking normally. Everyone was waiting for the answer.

"That wasn't my line, and that's all I'm saying." I said. I heard Annabeth, and Thalia gasp. They looked at me and mouth 'Luke?' I nodded. Jason, Leo, Piper, and the gods looked at us confused. Nico finally relaxed again, leaning against me again.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

Some people laughed weakly, still kind of tense from the moment before.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine roared back to life.**

"About time." Leo muttered.

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"  
Once we got going, I stared feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"You just saw someone's life end, of course you feel sick." Athena said. Nico raised an eyebrow.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

"It was not the best experience." He said.

**"Grover?"  
"Yeah?"  
"What are you not telling me?"**

"Everything." The Demi-gods said.

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"  
"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like . . . Mrs. Dodds, are they?" **

"No they're worse." Travis and Conner said.

**His expression was hard to read but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

"Man, demanding much?" The Stolls joked to the half glaring Grover making us all laugh.

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."  
He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

"Observant." Athena said nodding in approval. My dad looked worried, but a bit proud. Everyone was looking at Athena in shock, probably because she just complimented me, sort of.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."  
"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.  
"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

Thalia glared at Grover.

**"What last time?"  
"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

"Grover, that's enough to freak anybody in sixth grade or younger." Annabeth said. Grover turned bright red.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"  
"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."  
This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

Grover tried to hide his laugh.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.  
No answer.  
"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

"Yes, it does." Athena said. Everyone rolled their eyes at her. She either didn't care or didn't notice it.

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

Thalia, and Annabeth yawned loudly.

"We will continue tomorrow. The rooms are over that way." Athena said pointing to a hallway. There were enough rooms for everyone to get their own, but everyone chose to share one with someone, which was fine by me. Nico and I picked a room and crawled in to bed.

"Good Night Nico." I said kissing his lips softly.

"Good Night Percy." He said putting his head on my chest. I pulled him closer to me and went to sleep.

* * *

**(A/N- I know, I know. You hate me. I've been promising you guys I would post this chapter, but only did it now. It isn't as good as chapter 1, but I hope you guys still like it! Hope you guys forgive me for not being able to post this. Review or PM me, I want your opinions. Remember I love you guys!)**

**April 6, 2014**

**-Laysi**


	3. Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants

**A/N- I'm _so_ sorry the chapter came out later than it was supposed to, but it's here now! I hope you like it! Please read the A/N at the end of the chapter. I don't want to bore you guys in the beginning of the chapter with my excuses or explanations, or request (the request will be _really_ important to this story!) . So please read the A/N at the end of the chapter!**

**-Laysi **

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Percy's P.O.V.**

I could still feel the sweat trickling down my body from the nightmare I woke up from a couple hours ago. The only thing that comforted me was the fact that Nico was still asleep, curled up with his head on my chest, so he didn't have to worry. I haven't had a nightmare about Gabe for a while, but they still scared me. I carefully put Nico down, and walked over to the bathroom. My skin looked pale and I was shivering despite the room being a perfect temperature, not to hot, but not to cold either. I splashed some water on my face to try to help me calm down a bit and went back to bed. I hugged Nico around the waist, pulled him against me, and tried to go back to sleep. Eventually I did, and luckily it was a dreamless one.

~~~~~~~~~~Four hours later~~~~~~~~~~

"Percy, wake up." Nico grumbled shaking my shoulder.

"Good morning to you to. Ugh... What time is it?" I asked exhausted. I heard him walk over to the nightstand and look around.

"7:15... Nope 7:16 now." He said. I got up even though I didn't want to. Nico was sitting on the edge of the bed with his back towards me putting on his shoes. He had slept in his clothes last night. I got up to put on my shoes.

"Why'd you wake up this early?" I asked him.

"I didn't, Thalia and everyone else did," he grumbled again. "She said we were going to eat breakfast now, so that we can keep reading." He stood up.

"Good, I'm starving." Nico rolled his eyes playfully and we were off towards the kitchen.

When we got there everyone was already eating and talking.

"About time! We thought we were going to have to drag you guys here." Thalia said. Everyone chuckled at her antics. The gods and goddesses were sitting with their children trying to get some answers about the books, and the ones who didn't have kids here were just talking about nothing in particular. After we finished eating we all went back to the throne room, sat on our beanbags/thrones and got comfortable.

"Who's going to read?" Clarisse asked yawning.

"I will." Grover said raising his hand. Annabeth passed the book to him and he started reading.

**Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants**

Grover was blushing a bright red and everyone else was looking at him weirdly.

"Does anyone else find it weird that Grover got the chapter about himself?" The Stolls asked.

**Confession time:**

I felt Nico tense up at those words, probably thinking of when we had to tell everyone we were dating. I held his hand behind our backs.

"Your confessions are always interesting." Thalia winked at Nico and me. I glared at her, and I heard Grover laughing behind her. Everyone else was looking at us confused.

**I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

Now everyone was staring at me in shock.

"That was rude." Hera said.

"That wasn't the wisest choice." Athena scolded me, while my dad looked a bit worried but was trying not to laugh as well.

"Hey. In my defense, he was freaking me out." I said. The other demigods just laughed, well except for Nico.

**I know, I know. It was rude.**

"At least you knew it was rude." Hera sighed.

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to be sixth grade?"**

"Okay, that would freak anyone out." The Stolls said laughing, Grover smiled sheepishly.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

"You left him alone?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

"I was nervous/scared/shocked, plus the deadline. I wasn't thinking right." Grover defensibly said. Everyone was sniffling laughs while the gods were talking to each other trying to figure out what the deadline was.

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

"Good. Always escape when you know you have the chance." The Stolls and Hermes said. "It's rule #3"

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

"I don't live there anymore." I told Travis and Conner after seeing them share smiles. They pouted.

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

"Amazing." Annabeth said.

"Awesome." Nico said quietly mostly to me.

"Wonderful." Thalia smiled.

"Cool." Clarisse said.

"Funny." The Stolls said. I smiled at all of them.

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

"You know that, that theory counts you too, right?" Nico asked me. I smiled and shook my head.

"He's right." Thalia whispered to me, Grover nodded. Did my friends really think so high of me?

"Well then, if that's true, then at least I have friends that make it worth it." I told them. They smiled at me.

"Thanks Perce." Grover said. I nodded at him. He and Thalia joined the conversation Annabeth and Clarisse were having about camp.

"I don't think that theory counts me." I whispered to Nico.

"Why not? Cause I'm sure everyone in this room would agree with me." He countered.

"Because if I had 'the rottenest luck' then I would've never met you, I would've never fallen in love with you, you wouldn't have loved me back, and if I had the worst luck: we would have never gotten together." By the time I finished he was blushing a really deep red.

"Do you still agree with your theory?" I whispered to him, my lips right next to his ear. His blush got darker.

"I'll get back to you on that." He said.

"I'll wait," I answered. "Oh, and by the way: that blush looks good on you." It got darker.** (A/N- I kind of made that Percy's catchphrase for whenever Nico blushes. I don't know why. I just thought it was kind of cute.)**

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five,**

Everyone glared at Zeus.

**and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her.**

Everyone glared again, but at no one in particular.

**She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program.**

"How did _you_ ever get a smart woman?" Athena asked my father. He just smiled at her and said,

"I didn't get her. She got me." Artemis actually smiled a tiny bit at this.

**Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"This women truly deserves a blessing." Athena and Artemis said. Poseidon nodded.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

"Awwww!" Aphrodite cooed. Poseidon smiled.

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.**

Poseidon looked at me shocked. "I did visit you once. . . in your crib," He said. He glared at Zeus when he opened his mouth to say something. "I didn't think you would remember."

**My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. **

"Aww she still loves you!" Aphrodite squealed.

**She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret.**

"Yeah it was." I heard Zeus mutter.

"Ooh more forbidden love! This is so exciting!" Aphrodite squealed/cooed.

"More?" Everyone asked.

"Not anyone here." She shrugged. Nobody looked that convinced. I could feel Nico was as tense as I was. I just hoped they dropped it.

**Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**

**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

"She lied, but didn't lie at the same time," Hermes and Apollo said. "Uncle P, we approve." They nodded seriously. Apollo got smacked by Artemis.

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

"This woman truly is remarkable." Artemis praised. Poseidon nodded.

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe.**

"That's kind of mean." Hera said.

"I'm sorry, but it was true." I said remembering him.

"So, this, Gabe, guy was your step-dad?" Clarisse asked. I nodded.

**I'm sorry, but it's the truth.**

"Same old Percy." Thalia laughed making everyone else laugh, once they realized why she said that.

**The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

Everyone got a green tinge to their face.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along . . . well, when I came home is a good example.**

"A good example of something bad?" Travis and Conner laughed. I wasn't looking forward to this next part.

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

Everyone had their nose wrinkled.

"Eeew!" Aphrodite was squealing in disgust.

"Men." Artemis said in disgust.

"You lived there?" Thalia asked anger and disgust seeping into her voice.

"Yeah," I said. "But it doesn't matter anymore." They didn't look convinced.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

"WHAT?!" Everyone scream.

"Your gone for, like, ten months and he asked you for cash?" Annabeth said.

"It doesn't matter you guys. It was a long time ago."

"But—" Thalia tried to protest.

"It's was a long time ago." I said again. I guess she could see I wasn't going to give up.

"Fine." She said crossing her arms.

**That was it. No****_ Welcome back. Good to see you. How has you life been the last six months?_**

I swear I heard everyone growl.

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.**

"Sally married that?" Dad asked in disbelief. I nodded not trusting my self to talk. Just hearing about Gabe was getting me mad.

"I don't think even I could fix him." Aphrodite said.

**He managed the Electronic Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

No one said anything. Letting it sink in. Everyone was looking at me, and the silence was about to kill me.

"Did . . . d-did he ever hit you?" Poseidon asked me. Should I answer him? I thought about the nightmare I had earlier today.

_DREAM FLASHBACK_

_"Where's Sally?" Gabe asked. He came home drunk from his friend's house. _

_"She said she had to work late." I had said. I was seven at the time. It wasn't the first time he abused me, but it was one of the worst._

_"She said what?" He said slowly, and sort of calmly. When I didn't say anything he shoved me against the wall, his hand on the throat, cutting my supply of oxygen._

_"WHAT DID SHE SAY!?" He asked me again screaming. I couldn't say anything, not that I would have anyways. I learned never to say anything when he chose to beat me up. He threw me on the floor and kicked me continuously. When he stopped I got up, only to be shoved back against the wall. He punched my face, and I could hear the crack that proved later on that my nose was broken._

_"So, not only do I have to do everything here, but now I have to take care of her stupid kid too?" He growled, his stale breath hitting my face. He punched me again, but in the rib, until I knew at least three of them broke. He pushed me to the ground, kicked me one last time and left for his friend's house again. By that point I was coughing up blood, my nose was broken and bleeding, my ribs were broken, and I was having trouble breathing. I was about to try and get up when Gabe came back with a couple of his buddies. Michael walked over to me, picking me up by my hair, and threw me on the couch with his sadistic smile. I knew exactly what they were about to do to me. . .again. He started unbuttoning my shirt, while his friend held me in place. My struggles were useless._

And that was when I woke up (luckily) . Everyone was still looking at me. I don't know how long it's been, but I was getting stressed.

"I don't want to talk about it." I said. My vision was getting blurry. Despite the fact that it was a long time ago and I knew he couldn't hurt me anymore, it still scares me enough to make me cry. Always. I couldn't show them that though.

"I thought you said it didn't matter." Thalia said angrily through gritted teeth. She had tears in her eyes.

**Thalia's P.O.V.**

How could Percy have kept that from us!? Why didn't he tell us!? My vision was turning blurry. I walked out of the Throne Room before I could start crying.

**Annabeth's P.O.V.**

I could tell Thalia was about to cry and I would be lying if I said I wasn't. Here we were reading about one of my best friends and learning that he has been abused by his stupid step-dad. Why didn't he tell us? I went and followed Thalia.

**Grover's P.O.V.**

I knew Smelly Gabe treated him bad, but not this bad. I'm going to _kill_ Gabe.

**Nico's P.O.V.**

I wanted to be mad. No I am mad, but the melancholy that was also present won. I was mad at Percy for not telling anyone, I was mad at that stupid excuse of a human being- Gabe, I was mad that no one did anything about it (even if they didn't know what was going on). But I was also sad. I was upset that he got hurt, I'm upset that he didn't tell anyone, that he had to live with that for who knows how long. (A/N- I'm only doing these P.O.V.s because in my opinion these are the most important ones.)

"Come on." I said taking his hand, not caring who saw us, and pulled him back into the room we slept in last night.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I whispered. My vision was getting blurry fast.

"I didn't know how, I didn't want to give you guys anymore thing to worry about, and that not exactly the type of thing you talk about with the people you love." He said his voice cracking. He was looking down biting his lip. He was about to cry, I could tell. That was something I didn't want to see. Not now, not ever. Seeing Percy sad right now was killing me.

"Hey. Umm. . . We'll talk about it later okay?" I said trying to look into his eyes. He nodded.

**Third person P.O.V.**

**_Later in the Throne Room_**

Everyone stared at Percy and Nico as they walked in. Thalia and Annabeth had already both calmed down enough to come back.

"I'm sorry Percy." Annabeth said, still sniffling a bit from crying.

"Me to." Thalia said.

"You don't have to apologize. I mean you weren't there. There was nothing you could do. It wasn't your fault." Percy said to everyone. Poseidon wanted to apologize, but he was trying to calm down enough to stop the hurricane that was probably occurring in Florida. He had no idea that the boy who sat in front of looking perfectly happy had to deal with that. He would have never been able to tell if he wasn't just told.

"We . . .we can talk about it. . . later," Percy forced the words out. He didn't walk to talk about it later. In fact he didn't want to talk about it ever. "We should keep reading." He finished. Percy just wanted to move away from this topic. Clarisse, who had been quiet since it was announced, nodded her head.

"I think that would be better." She said, and everyone agreed.

**Percy's P.O.V.**

Grover found the page, and kept reading.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

I saw everyone shudder at the description. I pulled Nico against me.

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

I heard Athena gasp.

"Is that why?" She asked. I nodded.

"She must love you a lot if she could put up with that _pig_." She said. The rest of the gods and demi-gods looked confused. I was fine with that for now because I wasn't going to explain. I didn't think I could talk.

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said.**

**"Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right Eddie?"**

"Carry his own weight?! He was _twelve_!" Annabeth exploded at the book. No one dared remind her that she was talking to a book.

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

"At least one of them I have a soul." Artemis muttered.

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony.**

"But no backbone." She growled. Most of the girls (and some of the guys) had a green tinge to their faces.

"Farting in harmony is possible?" Thank the gods for the Stolls! They were trying to ease the small amount of tension still in the air.

"It is." I smiled at them. They smiled back.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

Dionysus snapped his fingers. "Done." He said. Everyone was looking at him confused. "Hey– if anyone is going to make his life miserable, it's going to be me." He regained his mean attitude. Everyone else turned away easily believing his words, but I didn't. '_Thank you'_ I mentally prayed to him. He gave me a silent curt nod, but when he turned back to his wine magazine I was pretty sure I saw him smile.

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!" **

"He'd better watch it before I come over there and smash his face." Clarisse growled. She'd been so quite that I forgot she was here.

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room.**

"What? That makes no sense." Thalia said.

"I agree." Athena and Annabeth said.

"Well if both Wise Girls don't get it then you know it made no sense." Apollo and Dad said. Annabeth glared have heartedly at the nickname, but her mom was glaring at them for real. Apollo gulped and started talking to Hermes. Poseidon smirked.

**During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

"Anyone else think of a trash can?" Leo asked raising his hand. I chuckled and raised my hand to, and soon the whole room was.

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

"And once again the King of Sarcasm strikes again!" Thalia laughed. Nico discreetly put his head on my shoulder.

"It's one of the things I love about you." He whispered.

"I love you too, Nico."

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

"If it was almost that bad. . ." Thalia shudders.

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. **

"Wimp." Ares muttered. I splashed him with ice cold water, which earned me a glare from him and a chuckle from Poseidon.

**I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons. **

Everyone shuddered while Nico and Hades smirked. Why does he have to be so cute?

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

"Awwww!" The goddesses cooed. "That is so sweet!" I could feel the blush creeping up my cheeks.

Then Nico turned to me and whispered, "You know? That blush looks really good on you." I felt it get darker then he turned back around, but I could tell he was holding in his laughter. I would've kissed him if we were alone.

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light.**

"Like Aphrodite?" Zeus asked at the same time Jason asked, "Like Piper?" I'd never thought about it that way. Before I could Poseidon smiled and nodded. Jason and Zeus looked at each other for a second before looking away.

**Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central.**

"I want candy." Travis and Conner pouted simultaneously. Hermes smiled and snapped his fingers. Bags of candy appeared in front of everyone.

"Thanks. . . Dad." The Stolls said almost uncertainly.

**She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples,"the way she always did when I came home.**

I smiled remembering when she did that.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

"Awww!" Almost every girl was cooing at me except for Hera, Artemis, and Thalia.

"She really is the best mom you could ask for." Thalia said. She had a thoughtful expression on her face that only came when you were thinking about something bad. I pulled her into a one-armed hug. She half glared at me, but didn't move.

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

Everyone gritted their teeth. Most of all me and Artemis.

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

"Or a god." Poseidon said. Zeus rolled his eyes, and Aphrodite looked as if she would combust at any second.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time.**

"I know Demi-gods get kicked out of schools a lot, but seriously Percy? You haven't lasted more than a year?" Annabeth laughed.

"It may not be hard for you, but for the rest of us here it's pretty hard." I huffed. This only made her laugh harder.

**I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin.**

"How come Latin is easier for Percy than us?" Piper asked no one in particular.

"My Greek and Roman form do not change much. They are fairly similar. Sometimes my Greek and Roman personalities mix." Dad said. Piper nodded although she looked surprised. Guess she didn't expect to talk to Poseidon.

**And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

Grover whistled. "If Nancy didn't seem bad then that must have been a good spin." He laughed.

**Until that trip to the museum . . .**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"You shouldn't lie to your mother." Hera told me. Nico just looked at me. He was smirking and his black eyes were bright. His hair ruffled even more on the back from leaning his head against my chest. His hands playing with the hem of my shirt, and I would've kissed him right there and now if Thalia hadn't shook us out of it. Nico scowled but leaned against me again. Thalia rolled her eyes but she was smiling.

**I felt bad lying.**

"You should." Hera huffed.

**I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

"Not to your mom." Annabeth said.

"You told a mortal?!" Zeus asked Poseidon before I could answer Annabeth.

"No. She was clear-sighted. She figured it out herself." Poseidon said. Zeus just sighed.

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**

**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

Everyone growled again at the mention of Gabe.

"Well obviously there wasn't enough money! He kept gambling it!" Thalia yelled to no one.

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

Clarisse punched Conner since he was the nearest to her. Travis snickered and got punched to.

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

"Your mother deserves to get blessed for having to deal with that pig." Artemis said again.

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

"He better let you go." Poseidon grumbled.

"He does." I reassured them.

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Uncle P, you had a good woman. Lying, now bribery! We like her." Apollo and Hermes said.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip . . . it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"WHAT?!" Aphrodite screams. "That-that monster!"

"Mom?" Piper asked, and seemed to come to her senses. Then she looked at me.

"I'm giving your mother a whole new wardrobe. No one deserves to put a budget on clothes." She says seriously.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip . . . And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"Do it!" Everyone yelled. I looked down at Nico. He hadn't said much since he found out what Gabe did to me. He had his arms crossed and he was scowling.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad. Why did she put up with this guy?**

"Because she loves you." Aphrodite said.

**I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

"King. Of. Sarcasm." The Stolls laughed.

"Wait. If you were trying to not get him mad, why did you use sarcasm that obvious?" Piper asked.

"Keep reading." I smiled remembering that day.

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

"He couldn't hear the sarcasm?!" Thalia asked her mouth hanging open. Even Athena's mouth was hanging. Poseidon was laughing. Zeus was trying not to laugh, and Hades was smirking.

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about . . . whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

"That feeling comes a lot more often then it did then." Leo said.

"Yep!" Conner and Travis said.

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car.**

"He didn't even help?" Apollo asked. I shook my head and while everyone was deciding which would be the best way to kill him, I took my chance to talk to Nico.

"Do you still want to talk about it later?" I whispered to him. He looked at me for a second before responding,

"Obviously." He muttered.

"Just wanted to make sure, and stop being so . . . Gloomy. " he shook his head.

"Please." I could see the corners of his mouth tilting up.

"No. Not until Later comes." He said seriously.

"Fine." I sighed.

**He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

No one said anything due to the fact that they have already decided how to kill him. To bad they can't though.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag.**

"1.) As if he'd be the one driving, and 2.) that's a horridly given nickname." Clarisse said.

**"Not one little scratch."**

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

"Typical men, all they care about are their cars, food, t.v., sports." I'm pretty sure she would have kept ranting about men if Apollo hadn't interrupted her.

"That's not all true." He said. She glared at him, and I could have sworn that for a second he looked sad or hurt before he smiled again. No one else noticed.

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon.**

"How did you do that?" Jason asked. I shrugged, so naturally, everyone looked at Annabeth for the answer.

"I . . . don't . . . know." She said as if the words hurt, and I guess they did. I'm pretty sure Clarisse would have said something rude if she wasn't also curious to how I did what I did. Annabeth looked at her mom, Athena.

"It could have been the water molecules in the air reacting to you." She said. We all nodded. That makes sense.

**Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.**

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

A few chuckles.

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

Annabeth and Athena shuddered at the mentions of spiders.

**and most of the time the sea was to cold to swim in.**

"As if that'd stop you." Annabeth laughed.

"Does the water temperature even matter to you? Like do you feel it?" Thalia asked me and my dad.

"I feel it, but it doesn't bother me. Almost as if I don't feel it. Does that make sense?" She nodded.

**I loved the place.**

"Me too." Nico whispered. I took him there on our third date. I had set up a semi-romantic dinner and afterward we sat at the shore until late night. I could never—would never— forgot how Nico looked that day, how he reacted, and what he had said. It was the first time they had told each other that they love each other. It was one of the happiest days of my life. And judging by the look in Nico's eyes it was one of his to.

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

Poseidon nodded. "We did meet there." Aphrodite was smiling. Zeus didn't say anything. He looked as if he was thinking deeply.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

"I always wondered why." Annabeth mused. I shrugged.

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

"What's with the blue food?" Zeus asked confused.

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

"That would be nice." All the gods said also expressing their curiosity.

"You do know you're talking to a book, right?" The Stolls laughed at the gods, only to stop when Ares growled at them.

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue.**

Artemis held her head high and had a smug look on her face. A look of . . . Proudness? I couldn't really tell. The look left as soon as it had come.

**She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She brought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, liked me.**

"Please. You do not have a rebellious streak. It's more like half a streak of obedience." The whole Throne Room laughed.

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

"Percy does look like a mini Poseidon." Aphrodite stated, everyone nodding along with her.

"Even in personality." Grover said. Dad smiled proudly at me, and I smiled back. Nico looked happy (well as happy has he ever gets with other people around) and confused. And maybe weirded out. I'd have to ask him about that later.

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

"I am." Dad said. I offered a smile smile. Hearing my dad say he was proud of me was kind of overwhelming.

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card! kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

"When you put it like that you don't sound awesome." The Stolls said in a half joking manner. I'd be lying if I said I don't think that from time to time. Maybe with different wording, but same meaning. Nico was glaring at me and I sighed in defeat. Nico knew what I was thinking about.

"Later?" I mouthed to him and he nodded.

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean . . . when he left?" She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But . . . he knew me as a baby."**

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember . . . something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

"Just once. I had to see you at least once." Poseidon half whispered. I smiled at him. He smiled back.

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me . . .**

**I felt angry at my father. Maybe it wS stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

Poseidon looked down sadly._ "I'm sorry Percy."_ He telepathically said to me.

"It's okay Dad. I don't feel that way anymore." I said back to him. He smiled.

**"Are you going to send me away again? " I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**

**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think . . . I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

Everyone who knew me and my mother looked at me in shocked.

"I regretted the words as soon as I spoke them." They nodded a bit dazed.

**I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Told you." I said quietly to no one.

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

"You're not as dense as I thought," Athena said. "You're really observant."

"Thanks?" It came out sounding like a question. She rolled her eyes, but I think I saw her smile.

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

"You're really not making this easy for her." Surprisingly it was Ares and Clarisse that spoken.

"Yeah, I know." I said.

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

"Like what?" Hermes, Apollo, and the Stolls asked eagerly obviously expecting something funny.

"You'll see." Everyone was looking at me worriedly and confused.

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

Everyone was looking at Poseidon weirdly, but he looked just as confused as the rest of us.

"Were you checking up on him?" Zeus asked. I don't think he was mad about me being born anymore. Dad shook his head still looking confused.

"I didn't send anyone to check on him incase something like that happened. Incase he noticed that it wasn't a mortal." Grover kept reading, but everyone was confused by the cyclops especially my dad.

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into.**

Nico was clenching my shirt and I didn't have the courage to look at him. Everyone else looked worried.

**My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.**

"Like Hercules." Hera said as if it were a compliment. Jason, Piper, Annabeth, Thalia, Artemis, and me growled at the name, but most noticeably was Thalia, Artemis, and me.

"Don't compare to tha- him, please." I said as politely as I could muster at the time. She looked confused, but nodded nonetheless.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her.**

"Why?" Leo asked strangely serious.

"Keep reading."

**I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

"You risked your life just that you could spend time with your mother?" Hera and Artemis asked me.

"Well, I didn't know I was risking my life, but I did want to spend more time with her." Hera half smiled, half frowned. Artemis actually smiled at me.

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just . . . I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born—talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp . . ."**

"That is confusing." Apollo said frowning a bit thinking about it. Artemis rolled her eyes and Apollo frowned even more.

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

"You know your mother well." Hera stated. I nodded. She looked at her kids and sighed.

**That night I had a vidid dream.**

All the other Demi-gods groaned.

"I hate your dreams." Thalia muttered with a chorus of 'yeahs' and 'me too' following it.

**It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

"What did you do, Poseidon?" Zeus asked half jokingly and half serious. Poseidon rolled his eyes and said,

"How do you know it was my fault?" And before an argument could start( even if it wasn't serious) Grover continued reading.

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the the eagle's wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

Everyone looked at Hades. And both Nico and Hades rolled their eyes.

"Not me." Was all he said. Nobody except the Demi-gods and Poseidon looked convinced.

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be to late. I saw the eagle dive down, it's beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, _No_!**

There was a tension in the room that wasn't there before, but only for the gods. All of them were looking at Zeus and Poseidon. I could tell they were starting to get uncomfortable, so I told Grover to keep reading.

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

"Artillery?" Travis and Conner asked, and just before Annabeth,or Athena could answer Clarisse did.

"They're large-caliber guns used in warfare on land." She said bored. When she saw Annabeth smile she scowled. Ares looked somewhat proud.

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten.**

"Uncle P! How could you forget?!" Apollo and Hermes asked mockingly. Poseidon rolled his eyes smirking.

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

Everyone was quiet, waiting to see what would happen, while me and Grover tried to hide our laughing.

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**

**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't . . . he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"What do you mean 'he wasn't exactly Grover'?" Leo asked confused written all over his face. It was kind of funny.

"You'll see."

"I'm really starting to hate those words." He grumbled. Almost everyone else was nodding along with him.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**

**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover.**

"Wish you guys could have seen his face," Grover laughed thinking about that night. At the looks he got, he explained. "It's like . . . A weird and funny mixture of shocked, confused, and scared." He started laughing again a few chuckles from other trying to imagine it.

**I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

"Why not?! What was wrong with Grover?!" Leo screamed throwing his hands up.

"You'll see." Annabeth replied laughing knowing with this would cause. Leo put his ands down grumbling.

**"_O Zeu kai alloi theoi_!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

**I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I understood him perfectly.**

"You understood him perfectly?" Zeus asked, his eyebrows raised. "The first time you heard Ancient Greek?" I nodded confused. The gods looked at each other having one of those silent conversations that Chiron and Annabeth always have. They didn't elaborate on it. I looked over at Chiron and saw he was having currently getting out of his magic wheelchair.

**I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be . . . where his legs should be . . .**

"Someone telling me what's going on." Leo asked exasperated.

"You're going to have to wait like everyone else here, punk." Clarisse growled. Leo nodded quickly and sunk back into his bean bag. Neither Clarisse nor Ares looked very happy at the moment, probably due to the lack of action so far, but I could still see how she resembled him.

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "_Percy_. Tell me _now_!"**

"Your mom had never screamed at you?" Hephaestus asked. I shook my head, and he glared at Hera. I instantly felt bad.

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

"Likes Nico's or Lord Hades?" Annabeth whispered to me jokingly. I glared at for moment before saying, "No." She looked confused, but didn't say anything else to me. Instead she started whispering to Thalia.

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

"You have a muscular disorder in your legs?" Leo asked Grover, who looked turned between laughing and being offended.

"Just wait." I told him. He sighed, but complied.

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.**

"Oh!" Leo said finally getting it, turning pink when everyone chuckled.

* * *

**A/N- If you're reading this thank you for reading my first A/N And listening to it! Request first: As you know this is a Percico story, but we all know the original story follows Percabeth. I want to know what you guys want me to do about that. Change the story? Make them break-up? Make them never have dated? Tell me you opinion Please! My excuse this time for not updating the story on time is that my cast came off a day later than planned. So I had to rush to get this updated as soon as possible so sorry for the mistakes. I'll come back and fix them. Thanks for the reviews and PM's I've gotten! And to all you followers! Remember: I Love You Guys!**

**May 26, 2014**

**-Laysi**


End file.
